Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union
1.2. Contact organisation unit
[4D1_G4] Eurostat - Trade in services; globalisation
1.3. Contact name
Petra Sneijers
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG
1.6. Contact email address
petra.sneijers@ec.europa.eu
1.7. Contact phone number
+352 4301 35024
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
22 November 2006
2.2. Metadata last posted
22 November 2006
2.3. Metadata last update
23 November 2009
3.1. Data description
SBS series on Intangible investment and subcontracting in industry are closely related to other SBS domains for which separate metadata files have been compiled (See annex at the bottom of the page). They cover the NACE Rev 1.1 sections C to F.
The information has been collected once every three years. A few characteristics on Intangible investment and subcontracting have been defined.
15 42 0 Gross investment in concessions, patents, licences and trade marks and similar rights
15 44 1 Investment in purchased software
15 44 2 Investment in software produced by the enterprise (optional)
23 11 0 Payments to subcontractors
23 12 0 Income from subcontracting (only required for construction - NACE Rev 1.1 section F)
For Industry (NACE C-E) the breakdown is detailed to the NACE class level (4-digits). For Construction (NACE F) intangible investments are collected only on NACE group level (3-digits), whereas payments to and income from subcontracting are detailed on NACE class level.
3.2. Classification system
National data are broken down at the detailed (4-digit) level of the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE Rev.1 until 2001, and NACE Rev. 1.1 since 2002). Regional data are broken down according to the NUTS-2 classification, generally combined with a NACE division (2 digits) level activity detail (but a more detailed NACE 3-digit group level activity breakdown for the trade sector). More information on these nomenclatures is found on the appropriate ESTAT website RAMON.
Employment size classes are used for breakdowns in all sectors, combined with an activity detail on NACE group (3 digits) level. Turnover size classes are used for trade and sales area size classes are defined for a specific series applying to retail trade. The detailed overview of the breakdowns by annex, is found in a Commission Regulation N° 2701/98 and amended by N°1614/2002 and N°1669/2003.
3.3. Coverage - sector
They cover the NACE Rev 1.1 sections C to F.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Structural Business Statistics (SBS) describe the economy through the observation of the activity of units engaged in an economic activity. They answer such questions as: how much wealth is created in an activity? How many work forces are needed to create this wealth? How is this activity developing? Is this activity participating in the growth of the economy? How much investments are realized in this activity?
The SBS characteristics are defined in Commission Regulation No 2700/98. This regulation covers all business demographic, employment and monetary characteristics as well as indicators consisting of ratios of monetary variables or per head values.
Characteristics and indicators are also coded by a 5 digit number. The first two digits indicate the set the characteristics belong to. Some main characteristics collected in the framework of the structural business statistics are:
o Intangible investment
"Output related" characteristics: (coded as 12 xx x)
SBS consists of a horizontal module (Annex 1), including a limited set of basic statistics for all market activities. Six sector-specific annexes cover a more extended list of sector-specific characteristics. The sector-specific annexes are: industry (Annex 2), distributive trades (Annex 3), construction (Annex 4), insurance services (Annex 5), credit institutions (Annex 6) and pension funds (Annex 7). The detailed overview of the availability of characteristics by sector is found in a Commission Regulation No 2701/98. For example, annex 2 for industry includes a breakdown of the gross investment in tangible goods into categories of goods, more detail regarding stocks, costs of energy consumption, payments for agency workers, number of part-time workers, number of persons employed in full-time equivalent units and number of hours worked by employees. A breakdown of the turnover between industrial activity, construction, trade and services is also collected.
3.5. Statistical unit
National data and data broken down by size class of number of persons employed both refer to enterprises.
The enterprise is the smallest combination of legal units that is an organisational unit producing goods or services, which benefits from a certain degree of autonomy in decision-making, especially for the allocation of its current resources. An enterprise carries out one or more activities at one or more locations. An enterprise may be a sole legal unit.
Regional data refer to local units.
The local unit is an enterprise or part thereof (e.g. a workshop, factory, warehouse, office, mine or depot) situated in a geographically identified place. At or from this place economic activity is carried out for which - save for certain exceptions - one or more persons work (even if only part-time) for one and the same enterprise.
For detailed information on statistical units, please see either Chapter 3 of the Eurostat Manual of Business Statistics Business or the Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 of 15 March 1993 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community (Official Journal of the European Communities No L 076, 30/03/1993, p. 1), Section III of 15.03.1993 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community
Could you please update the respective hyperlinks?
3.6. Statistical population
The SBS regulation covers NACE Rev.1.1 sections C to K, which broadly speaking covers Market activities.
3.7. Reference area
The data category covers EU27, EU 25, Norway and Switzerland. Not only country specific data are disseminated but European aggregates as well.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Data are required since 1997 for the characteristics on intangible investments, from 1999 onwards for payments to subcontractors.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Monetary data are expressed in millions of €.
SBS data refer to the calendar year, which in most cases corresponds to the fiscal year. 1995 is the first reference year for SBS implementation. The period 1995-1998 corresponds to a transitional period in SBS implementation. The data set is more complete starting from reference year 1999. Thus, European aggregates are available for most important variables and tables from reference year 1999 onwards.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Council Regulation No 58/97, amended by Commission Regulation No 1614/2002 and European Parliament and Council Regulation No 2056/2002 are the main legal framework for structural business statistics. For the implementation of the Council Regulation a number of Commission Regulations were adopted, specifying the characteristics, the series of data to be provided, the technical format for the transmission of the data and possible derogations.
Legal texts relevant for SBS are available on "Legislation". The 'background' section on the dedicated website also contains the links to the legislation applicable.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Eurostat makes available all non-confidential and sufficiently reliable data on its dissemination website.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Confidentiality - if data are of truly confidential nature according to the above mentioned regulation, they have to be flagged confidential, and they will not be published by Eurostat. Eurostat makes available all non-confidential data on its dissemination website.
8.1. Release calendar
Not applicable.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not applicable.
8.3. Release policy - user access
In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.
Once every three years.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
News releases on-line
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Yearly: Panorama of the European Union: European Business - Facts and Figures.
Recent and detailed information (See annex at the bottom of the page) on the statistical system and the SBS survey strategy of individual member states (MS), candidate countries (CC) or European Economic Area countries (NO, CH) is available.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
National methodology reports and some yearly quality reports, referring to 1998-2005, of MS and NO are available.
Information on quality is expected to be delivered by Member States for the data referring to reference year 2008 and to be published by Eurostat in 2011.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The main users of SBS data, the Commission policy DGs, are consulted in order to identify unfulfilled user needs.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Eurostat has not yet organised a user satisfaction survey, but plans to do so in the near future.
12.3. Completeness
The period 1995-1998 corresponds to a transitional period in SBS implementation. The data set is more complete starting from reference year 1999. Thus, European aggregates are available for most important variables and tables from reference year 1999 onwards. For 2006, overall 91% of the data required by the SBS Regulation Annexes 1 to 4 was provided. All non-confidential data of sufficient quality has been published.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The SBS Regulation is an output-oriented Regulation, leaving data providers the choice of data sources. In most countries a combination of survey and administrative data is used. It is very hard to assess the accuracy of the administrative data. No quantitative indicator is available.
13.2. Sampling error
For the data covered by survey the coefficients of variation have to be transmitted. Work is ongoing to calculate an overall EU coefficient of variation, but this is not available yet. Data of individual countries cannot be published.
13.3. Non-sampling error
The unit non-response and item non-response are provided by EEA Member States, but cannot be disseminated.
14.1. Timeliness
Most data are released 22 months after the reference year.
14.2. Punctuality
Data delivery is due 18 months after the reference year.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Comparisons across countries are sometimes limited by methodological factors: summary of main issues (See annex at the bottom of the page).
15.2. Comparability - over time
Comparisons over time are sometimes limited by methodological factors: summary of main issues (See annex at the bottom of the page).
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Intangible investments are hardly correlated with any element in the profit and loss account. Plausibility checks are generally less stringent, increasing thereby the possible error margin on the aggregate.
Comparisons over time and across countries are sometimes limited by methodological factors: summary of main issues (See annex at the bottom of the page).
15.4. Coherence - internal
The internal consistency of the data (links between variables, coherence between data series,...) are checked by Eurostat before dissemination.
Not available this information
17.1. Data revision - policy
These historical data are no longer updated nor revised.
17.2. Data revision - practice
These historical data are no longer updated nor revised.
18.1. Source data
SBS data are generally collected by the National Statistical Institutes (NSI) among enterprises.
The data are collected through statistical surveys, the business register or administrative sources. The NSIs can use one or several of these sources, according to the survey strategy they have adopted, taking into account the costs, the quality and the response burden on enterprises. For more detailed definition on these statistical sources, please see annex at the bottom of the page.
Recent and detailed information (See annex at the bottom of the page) on the statistical system and the SBS survey strategy of individual member states (MS), candidate countries (CC) or European Economic Area countries (NO, CH) is available.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual data are requested. Some series with mostly specialist information on a specific sector, which is burdensome to collect, are covered on a multi-annual basis.
18.3. Data collection
As far as statistical surveys are concerned, large businesses are completely enumerated whereas small businesses are usually sampled only.
18.4. Data validation
At Eurostat level data is validated before publishing. A number of logical checks between different variables are performed and the consistency of data over time is checked as well.
18.5. Data compilation
The following European aggregate is available:
EU27, EU25 (European Union, 27 countries, starting from reference year 1999)
Missing data are estimated for the purpose of the calculation of European aggregates only, these estimates are not released. Countries might send data with substantial delays to the regulation deadline. Occasionally, some characteristics or some NACE codes are missing. Eurostat would be unable to release European aggregates if these data were not estimated.
In order to protect confidential data at the national level a random perturbation has been applied to some of the EU25 aggregates (in the free data dissemination these aggregates are marked with an "i"). This way the confidential data at national level can only be determined with a very high error margin, the EU aggregates are however still acceptably accurate. A consequence of this method to hide confidential national data is that the breakdown of the data for a certain activity level into more detailed activities does not correspond fully with the figure provided for this activity level.
Financial data used generally derive from accounting data.
18.6. Adjustment
Monetary characteristics of the different countries are converted to and/or rounded to millions of euro.
Structural Business Statistics on the non-financial business economy have many characteristics in common. As such they are the backbone of a wider set of related statistics, covering also the financial sector (for which there are related characteristics) and several development programs existing for specific topics (See annex at the bottom of the page).
SBS series on Intangible investment and subcontracting in industry are closely related to other SBS domains for which separate metadata files have been compiled (See annex at the bottom of the page). They cover the NACE Rev 1.1 sections C to F.
The information has been collected once every three years. A few characteristics on Intangible investment and subcontracting have been defined.
15 42 0 Gross investment in concessions, patents, licences and trade marks and similar rights
15 44 1 Investment in purchased software
15 44 2 Investment in software produced by the enterprise (optional)
23 11 0 Payments to subcontractors
23 12 0 Income from subcontracting (only required for construction - NACE Rev 1.1 section F)
For Industry (NACE C-E) the breakdown is detailed to the NACE class level (4-digits). For Construction (NACE F) intangible investments are collected only on NACE group level (3-digits), whereas payments to and income from subcontracting are detailed on NACE class level.
23 November 2009
Structural Business Statistics (SBS) describe the economy through the observation of the activity of units engaged in an economic activity. They answer such questions as: how much wealth is created in an activity? How many work forces are needed to create this wealth? How is this activity developing? Is this activity participating in the growth of the economy? How much investments are realized in this activity?
The SBS characteristics are defined in Commission Regulation No 2700/98. This regulation covers all business demographic, employment and monetary characteristics as well as indicators consisting of ratios of monetary variables or per head values.
Characteristics and indicators are also coded by a 5 digit number. The first two digits indicate the set the characteristics belong to. Some main characteristics collected in the framework of the structural business statistics are:
o Intangible investment
"Output related" characteristics: (coded as 12 xx x)
SBS consists of a horizontal module (Annex 1), including a limited set of basic statistics for all market activities. Six sector-specific annexes cover a more extended list of sector-specific characteristics. The sector-specific annexes are: industry (Annex 2), distributive trades (Annex 3), construction (Annex 4), insurance services (Annex 5), credit institutions (Annex 6) and pension funds (Annex 7). The detailed overview of the availability of characteristics by sector is found in a Commission Regulation No 2701/98. For example, annex 2 for industry includes a breakdown of the gross investment in tangible goods into categories of goods, more detail regarding stocks, costs of energy consumption, payments for agency workers, number of part-time workers, number of persons employed in full-time equivalent units and number of hours worked by employees. A breakdown of the turnover between industrial activity, construction, trade and services is also collected.
National data and data broken down by size class of number of persons employed both refer to enterprises.
The enterprise is the smallest combination of legal units that is an organisational unit producing goods or services, which benefits from a certain degree of autonomy in decision-making, especially for the allocation of its current resources. An enterprise carries out one or more activities at one or more locations. An enterprise may be a sole legal unit.
Regional data refer to local units.
The local unit is an enterprise or part thereof (e.g. a workshop, factory, warehouse, office, mine or depot) situated in a geographically identified place. At or from this place economic activity is carried out for which - save for certain exceptions - one or more persons work (even if only part-time) for one and the same enterprise.
For detailed information on statistical units, please see either Chapter 3 of the Eurostat Manual of Business Statistics Business or the Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 of 15 March 1993 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community (Official Journal of the European Communities No L 076, 30/03/1993, p. 1), Section III of 15.03.1993 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community
Could you please update the respective hyperlinks?
The SBS regulation covers NACE Rev.1.1 sections C to K, which broadly speaking covers Market activities.
The data category covers EU27, EU 25, Norway and Switzerland. Not only country specific data are disseminated but European aggregates as well.
SBS data refer to the calendar year, which in most cases corresponds to the fiscal year. 1995 is the first reference year for SBS implementation. The period 1995-1998 corresponds to a transitional period in SBS implementation. The data set is more complete starting from reference year 1999. Thus, European aggregates are available for most important variables and tables from reference year 1999 onwards.
The SBS Regulation is an output-oriented Regulation, leaving data providers the choice of data sources. In most countries a combination of survey and administrative data is used. It is very hard to assess the accuracy of the administrative data. No quantitative indicator is available.
Monetary data are expressed in millions of €.
The following European aggregate is available:
EU27, EU25 (European Union, 27 countries, starting from reference year 1999)
Missing data are estimated for the purpose of the calculation of European aggregates only, these estimates are not released. Countries might send data with substantial delays to the regulation deadline. Occasionally, some characteristics or some NACE codes are missing. Eurostat would be unable to release European aggregates if these data were not estimated.
In order to protect confidential data at the national level a random perturbation has been applied to some of the EU25 aggregates (in the free data dissemination these aggregates are marked with an "i"). This way the confidential data at national level can only be determined with a very high error margin, the EU aggregates are however still acceptably accurate. A consequence of this method to hide confidential national data is that the breakdown of the data for a certain activity level into more detailed activities does not correspond fully with the figure provided for this activity level.
Financial data used generally derive from accounting data.
SBS data are generally collected by the National Statistical Institutes (NSI) among enterprises.
The data are collected through statistical surveys, the business register or administrative sources. The NSIs can use one or several of these sources, according to the survey strategy they have adopted, taking into account the costs, the quality and the response burden on enterprises. For more detailed definition on these statistical sources, please see annex at the bottom of the page.
Recent and detailed information (See annex at the bottom of the page) on the statistical system and the SBS survey strategy of individual member states (MS), candidate countries (CC) or European Economic Area countries (NO, CH) is available.
Once every three years.
Most data are released 22 months after the reference year.
Comparisons across countries are sometimes limited by methodological factors: summary of main issues (See annex at the bottom of the page).
Comparisons over time are sometimes limited by methodological factors: summary of main issues (See annex at the bottom of the page).
